Brandon S. Roy, American Poet

Posted by: tsopr | September 12, 2009

Brandon S. Roy, American Poet

Brandon S. Roy’s work has appeared in a numerous journals, including the Ottawa Arts Review, Loch Raven Review, Origami Condom, Pedestal Magazine and Pocket Change. His first book, Chaos Love Theory, has yet to be released. He currently resides in southwest Louisiana.

Amour Charme – Sonnenzio on a line from Arlene Ang

We breathe silence and, on rare days, hold hands.
You can breathe easier at night

and forget about your troubles
Breathe in the light, breathe out, breathe in

I stand in silence and submission
And on rare occasions we hold hands, twisting and stretching space

We stand as still enemies in silence
It’s a rare performance we give each other

I drew a veve on my hand
Squeezing my palms: This pain is my code of silence

It all began with she who breathe prayers on her hands
Beautiful mademoiselle lived in silence

And flashes one of her rare smiles
I see her every once in a while

–

The House

The house is empty.
It only takes up space
where a family once lived.
There are only remains.

–

Acadiana Blood Language

We are happy here
We have lived in the same parish for nearly two hundred years
We speak three hundred year old French in one form or another
We have yet to lose our accents
We marry the same families over and over
We are usually all Catholic
We carry saint’s names
We associates traits with last names
We eat everything with rice
We all live down the street from each other
We are still weary of outsiders
We try to hold on to a system that doesn’t fit this new world
We upgrade our culture when we find it necessary
We have survive this way for centuries
We have our pride
We live this way because we love it
We love it because it’s all we have ever known
We love our area
We sometimes leave it but
We always come back home